Advanced Television

Nilesat confirms plans for new satellite

September 6, 2019

By Chris Forrester

Cairo-based Nilesat has revealed that it has received indicative bids from a number of contractors to build its Nilesat 301 craft, together with ground equipment.

A statement to the Cairo stock exchange said that Nilesat had formed a special committee to evaluate the bids and identify the best offer.

Nilesat’s trading has been hurt by tough local competition lately, and its H1/2019 profit fell 12.2 per cent to $23.81 million compared with the same period last year.

Nilesat 201 was launched in August 2010, and built by Thales Alenia Space at its Cannes Mandelieu facility. It operates from 7 degrees West. Its minimum mission duration is at least 15 years, and might be a year or two longer.

Its two previous satellites were Nilesat 101, built by the then Matra Marconi Space, and launched in April 1998. Nilesat 102 followed, also built by Matra, and was launched in August 2000.

Nilesat 103 was leased capacity using Eutelsat’s redundant HotBird 4 craft and used by Nilesat from Q2/2006 until April 2009.

Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite